


Evermore (Reprise)

by Paige_Turner36



Series: Evermore [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anti-Zelena, Bae's Shawl, Episode AU: s04e21-22 Operation Mongoose, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Reunion, Season 4b AU, True Love, True Love's Kiss, the Chipped Cup, the Dark One dagger, the Sorcerer's Hat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21650686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paige_Turner36/pseuds/Paige_Turner36
Summary: The last flicker of red in Rumple’s heart is dying and the Ex-Author has done a runner. With his time running out fast, it’s down to Emma to reunite Rumple and Belle before it’s too late.
Relationships: Belle & Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Golden Swan, Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold/Emma Swan
Series: Evermore [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569631
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	Evermore (Reprise)

**Author's Note:**

> Much like ‘Baelfire Lives’ I’ll be posting this series out of order.
> 
> Operation Mongoose/Heroes and Villains book Canon Divergent: Isaac tries to manipulate Light One Rumple to get him to stop Henry from ending this world. But no hero gets a happy ending here, not even the heroes of the book. Rumple reads pages from the book given to him by Henry, telling him that Belle and their son will die in a fire. As the events from the chapter start to unfold Rumple rides back to find his home ablaze. Fortunately Belle and the baby are safe as Henry had forewarned them. In gratitude Rumple offers Henry services in freeing Emma and stopping Isaac. Knowing what will happen to him when this world disappears.
> 
> Deckhand Hook still dies. Emma, Henry, Rumple and Regina convene in Bandit Regina’s tree where Emma and Henry fill them in on what’s happening. Rumple declares that the Author has made his second big mistake (the first trying to kill his family): ‘He’s turned us into heroes.’ And Regina, with her old Evil Queen smile, says happily: ‘Who wants to crash a wedding?’
> 
> They arrive at the church but are stopped by Evil!Snowing and Isaac. As Regina runs to stop Robin Hood’s wedding, Emma, Henry and Rumple do battle (Emma vs Evil!Charming, Rumple vs Evil!Snow, Henry vs Isaac). Just as Emma overpowers her father and Rumple blasts Isaac away from his grandson, Evil!Snow stabs Regina, who dives in to stop her hurting Henry.
> 
> Henry becomes the new Author. With Emma no longer the Saviour and Rumple only being this worlds Saviour by plot, Henry uses Regina’s blood to undo the book.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT. This is for fun and not for profit.

Rumple woke up on the floor of his shop and heard Emma stir beside him and felt the full weight of his dying heart like an elephant standing on his chest. Behind the counter Isaac grabbed Rumple’s car keys and ran for the door.

‘W-wait a minute. Wait…’ Rumple called hoarsely, grunting as used the glass cabinet to pull himself up, clutching his chest. ‘Where’re you going?’

‘Sorry. Can’t have that bum-ticker of yours slowing me down,’ said Isaac, indifferent to his suffering compared to earlier when he told him he was helping him because they were alike in their struggle for happiness. Now he was leaving him to die.

‘Hey!’

Emma was on her feet and she looked ready to cut off Isaac’s quill for what he did to them. Isaac, looking terrified, bolted. Emma charged after him. Rumple tried to follow but collapsed against the glass case. Emma stopped and looked back at Rumple, in great distress, clutching his heart. But Rumple waved his hand, urging her to leave him.

‘Go! Go…’

Without so much as a glance at the door where Isaac had vanished, Emma hurried back and steadied Rumple.

‘It’s your heart, isn’t it?’ said Emma anxiously.

Rumple nodded. ‘Yes… It - Ah!’

‘Oh no you don’t.’

Emma placed her hand on Rumple chest, her light magic flowing into him. Rumple gasped, wide-eyed as the pain momentarily vanished. When she took her hand away, his chest was still tight, but tolerable.

‘How’s that?’ Emma asked.

‘Better,’ Rumple panted. Unable to remain standing, he slid down to the floor, Emma couched down beside him. ‘Thank you.’

‘I didn’t buy us much time.’

‘No… For staying.’

‘We’re family. I’m not going anywhere. You haven’t got long, have you?’

Rumple shook his head, looking tired. ‘The last flicker of red… is disappearing.’

‘Your ability to love.’

‘At least… at the end… the Author gave me one last taste…’

Emma fumbled in her pocket for her phone. ‘I’ll call Belle.’

‘No,’ said Rumple as forcefully as he could manage, shaking his head again.

Emma stared at him incredulously. ‘You don’t want Belle to know you’re dying?’

‘They say true love entwines two hearts together. No matter wherever they are, no matter how far, you can feel it when your love is in distress. If Belle can’t feel it… it means the bond is broken. If she can? She’s either dismissed it as heartburn… or she does not wish to see me.’

‘How do you know? How do you know she’s not thinking ‘what if he doesn’t want to see me’?'

'The man she thinks just forced her into a Happy Ending with him and gave her a fake son? Why on earth, or in any realm would she want to see me?'

'She’s your wife.’

‘On paper… I don’t want her here out of pity. If she comes it won’t be for me. It’ll be out of a sincere duty to a common decency. Because that’s what’s expected when you’re a person in the world. She doesn’t want me. She’s found her true love…’

‘What? _Will_? No way.’

‘I walked in on Belle kissing him. Here. She’s moved on. I never should have come back. She was better without me. Happier without me.’

‘You think? Gold, Belle was a mess. Worse than when you went to Neverland on your suicide mission. Worse than when you died. She couldn’t sleep. She wouldn’t eat. She didn’t talk. She’d burst into tears if something reminded her of you; whether it was someone ordering a hamburger or someone playing your wedding song, every time her father put a bucket of red rose outside his shop, when she chipped one of Granny's teacups. She started wearing your sweaters. She even made Will wear your cologne. I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept on your side of the bed. She missed you.’

‘Will makes her smile.’

‘It was a rebound. You must have had them in the centuries you’ve been alive?’

‘No. Never. I killed Milah after she told me she never loved me, drunk on rage and darkness. It was centuries before I met Cora and she wanted power and elevation so much she ripped out her own heart rather than love me. With Milah it was affection… Cora lust… I’ve only ever fallen in love once and that was with Belle. After her, no one else could compare. Even when I thought she’d died and Regina suggested I get a new girl… I could never replace her. If Belle can replace me in so short of time… it just proved she loved the version of Rumple she thought she ought to have, instead of the Rumple she married.’

‘Well, I’ve seen and been in enough relationships to recognise when someone’s hiding what they’re really feeling and wants something meaningless because the real thing hurts. Belle and Will? They were trying too hard. Will’s kisses weren’t for her, and Belle’s weren’t for him. I think they were trying to prove something.’

‘Prove what?’

‘That they’re not still in love with someone else. That they were pretending they were really kissing their significant other.’

Rumple considered this for a moment and sighed. ‘It doesn’t matter now. It’s too late.’ He broke off with a hiss of pain and clutched his heart.

‘Gold! Hey, hey…’

Rumple panted, staring unseeingly at the ceiling. ‘Belle…’

Rumple turned desperately towards the safe, but eying it if he were an explorer contemplating a long and dangerous sea voyage. Emma went to the safe and entered the combination. Right 29. Left 09. Right 91. Emma opened and saw exactly what Rumple wanted. The chipped cup. She took it out and gave it to him. As Rumple cradled it in his lap Emma’s phone went off as she received a text. She sat down to answer it.

‘Mary Margaret and David got the bastard,’ Emma informed him.

But Rumple either didn’t hear her or wasn’t listening. He was staring at his cup. His hands shook as he lifted it to his mouth and pressed a deep, tender kiss upon on it. Like he was kissing Belle. He didn’t see Emma facetime Belle on her phone. Belle answered and Emma reversed the screen in time for her to see a single tear leaking from under her dying husband’s closed eyelid and slide down his cheek.

‘I just wish she knew…’ said Rumple, voice heavy with regret, leaning his head back against the counter. ‘…wish she’d let me explain…’

‘Knew what?’ Emma asked.

‘That my true love was never my power.’ He kicked out viciously with his foot, sending the dagger clattering across the floor. He breathed deeply, recovering from the exertion. ‘I hate the dagger. I hate that it can control me. That it can make me hurt the people I love. That I can’t protect them or myself without it. And I hate _I’m_ worth nothing without it.’

‘That’s why you wanted the Hat. To free yourself from the dagger.’

Rumple nodded. ‘It was the only way. Three hundred years of searching… the hat was the only magical artefact powerful enough to do it. And there it was… Just left lying there in the mansion.’

‘You tried to hat me when my magic was out of control.’ Emma was sympathetic but she wasn't going to let that slide.

‘I saw an opportunity and I took it – at the time. I apologise.’

‘And Hook’s heart?’

‘It was the Snow Queen told me it was the only way to complete the spell. The heart of someone who knew me before I became the Dark One. It was perfect. A way to finally free myself and payback on the marauding cur who tore apart my family… and threatened my happiness just to further his own. Never again would I be someone’s pet.’

‘Zelena really screwed you up, didn't she?’

‘The death of your only child and over a year in a cage at the mercy of the Wicked Witch will do that to you. Do you know how it feels to be controlled by heart or blade? It feels like you’re in chains. Total control. She could have ordered me to kill and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. I couldn’t stop her from… when she made me –’

‘Did she… rape you?’

Rumple nodded, shame-faced and disgusted with himself. ‘She made me enjoy it. I couldn’t move. I could only watch. Sometimes she would do it as – she’d…’ He gulped. ‘She’d do it to me as Belle.’

‘That sick twisted bitch.’

‘I never wanted to feel like that again. Powerless. To have my fate decide for me. I never wanted any one to ever have power over me.’

'Not even Belle.'

‘I gave her the real dagger when I proposed. I gave it back on our honeymoon. I wanted to do it properly. Until I saw that damned hat… just as I gave it back, there it was… just sitting on a table, like a paperweight. No guard, no protection spell, no Apprentice who was entrusted to protect it, the only thing missing was a 'Take me' sign. It was all too convenient.’

‘Like someone wanted you to take it? You think you were set-up?’

‘Whether I was or wasn’t is irrelevant. I was tempted with freedom and invincibility and I took it. Just as I took back the real dagger. I felt guilty; right up until Belle used it against me. The dagger may not have been real, but her intent was real. She preaches about no one but her decides her fate, yet she would enslave her own true love so that she wouldn’t lose face in front of you heroes. You know, out of all of you, Belle was the one I trusted the most to respect freewill.’

‘Why didn’t you just tell Belle all this?’

‘She wanted the beast gone. She wanted things to be as they were before I died. As did I. How could I tell her she married a broken man? How could I tell her the beast had grown stronger? She saw the beast rear its ugly head, and she chose heroism over love. She banished me because it was easier then admit that real life is not a fairy tale. But I never loved power over her. It’s always been her. And she’ll never know…’

Emma half glanced towards the phone at the little window where Belle was listening and watching intently, fighting back tears. ‘What would you say to her if you could? If Belle were here, if she were listening right now, what would you say?’

Rumple was barely conscious, slumped against the counter. He looked at Emma – unaware he was looking directly down the camera phone at his wife – and said, ‘That I love you… And I’m sorry… And I forgive you… Go see the world… Live your dream… Find someone worthy of your love… who sees you as I do… If you know where your happiness is… and who it’s with… Then you should run to it… grasp it… and never let it go…’

‘Oh Rumple…’ Belle whispered, face wet with tears.

Rumple suddenly seized in pain.

‘Gold?’ Emma reached out and gripped his shoulder.

Rumple whole body was trembling with the effort to remain upright. ‘Go – far away,’ said Rumple, as if every word was costing his great effort and pain. ‘When the man’s gone… only the Dark One remains. And that is more – ah! – that’s more dangerous… then you can ever… imag–’

Rumple groaned and collapsed.

‘Gold!’

The chipped cup fell from his limp hand and rolled away. With his last breath, before he lost consciousness, Rumple breathed, ‘Belle…’

‘Gold?’ Emma shook him. ‘Gold!’ Emma shook him harder, tapping his face. ‘Gold, talk to me! Gold! Rumplestiltskin!’

Belle dropped her phone and ran for the door. She was running towards her happiness. And her happiness was dying. And she was going to run to it, grasp it and never let it go again.

Belle burst into the shop like bull in a china shop.

‘Rumple!’

Emma was kneeling in front of Rumple sitting on the floor, trying to revive him with her light magic. Rumple was leaning back against the counter. His eyes closed.

‘Oh Rumple.’ Belle rushed to him and crouched on the hardwood floor beside him. ‘Rumple, talk to me.’

Emma removed her hand from Rumple’s chest, her magic having no effect whatsoever. ‘Belle, I’m sorry. I think… I think we’re too late.’

Belle’s voice trembled as she looked into her husband’s face. ‘Rumplestiltskin.’

Rumple’s eyelids flickered. Belle’s heart leapt.

‘Rumple? Can you hear me?’

Rumple opened his eyes. Belle and Emma received a shock. They weren’t his warm brown eyes. They weren’t even the amber reptilian eyes they had been in the Enchanted Forest. They were deep black pools, devoid of emotion, as was his face. The beast wore Rumple’s face.

‘No… Rumple, no… Rumple, it’s me, it’s Belle. Your wife.’

Belle’s words fell on deaf ears.

‘I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me. Please. I’m so sorry I doubted you. Please don’t leave me now.’

Belle grabbed Bae’s shawl from the open safe and held it up in front of his dead eyes.

‘Remember this? It’s Bae’s. Baelfire – your son. It’s your talisman.’

Belle wrapped it around his neck, just as she had done that night so long ago, gripping the ends. ‘You enchanted it so you wouldn’t forget us. The people you love. Your family.

Rumple said nothing.

‘Here.’ Belle reached desperately for their cup, wrapped Rumple’s hand around it and lifted it up. ‘Remember? Our chipped cup. I dropped it in your castle. I was afraid that you’d be angry, but you made me feel better about it. After that you never drank your tea without it. You said it was the one thing you truly cherished. It’s a symbol of our love. No matter what it’s been through, it’s survived. Just like our love. So you can’t be gone. True love never dies.’

Still Rumple said nothing. She might as well be talking to a mannequin.

‘Rumple, please. _Please_. Don’t let it take it all away. Don’t let this cup be all that’s left of us.’

Belle turned his face to look at the cup, praying some lingering enchantment on it would help wake him. Rumple stared at it for a moment, then his head returned to its original position.

Rumple really was gone. Belle burst into tears and cried into his chest. Emma watched them sadly. Rumplestiltskin was an empty shell. Gone was the brave lion before Milah and his village took his courage and convinced him he was a coward. Zelena had reduced him to a raggedy scarecrow and tried to steal his brain. Now the Darkness had stolen his love, leaving behind a tin man without a heart.

Belle raised her head, looking at her husband in utter anguish. ‘Oh Rumple, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault! I did this to you! To us!’

She cupped his face, looking into his black eyes searching for… s _omething_. A spark that would tell her that he was still in there. Rumple looked straight through her with cold indifference. Belle wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight.

‘You fought so hard for me. You never gave up on me. I just want you back…’

It was hard to tell because of the blackness, but Emma thought she saw Rumple’s eyes flicker, searching blindly in the dark for her voice.

‘I want you back, Rumple. Please don’t leave me.’

Belle pulled back to look into Rumple’s black eyes.

‘I love you. All of you. The man. The beast. My true love. My husband. My Rumple… Come back to me…’

Belle kissed him, her hand wrapped around their cup. For a moment nothing happened. Then Rumple blinked. He blinked again, his black eyes half-lidded. Then they closed and he kissed back, cupping her cheek with his ring hand. Rumple and Belle glowed with an inner golden light, shining brighter and brighter. Black tendrils rose out of him like snakes. Realising what was happening, Emma seized the dagger from the floor and waved it over the starry box. The Sorcerer’s hat rose up and she aimed it at the Darkness.

‘Hey!’ Emma called at the swarming mass. ‘You want power? Take it!’

The Darkness was sucked into the hat like a vacuum. The dagger glowed, erasing _Rumplestiltskin_ from the blade. A black spot appeared on hat, trapped forever; a black hole amongst the stars. Emma returned it to its case.

A pulse of rainbow light shuddered out and swept across Storybrooke. True Love's Kiss. Belle pulled back. Rumple opened his eyes. They were brown again. And full of love. Just like the man before her.

‘ _Belle_.’ Rumple’s voice was hoarse, weak from exhaustion and inexpressible joy of seeing her.

‘Rumple,’ Belle whispered tearfully.

They embraced each other like they had been separated for a thousand years. Emma smiled with joy at the sight.

‘You came back for me,’ said Rumple, burying his face in her hair.

‘Of course I came back.’

Rumple and Belle pull back to look at each other.

‘I heard your voice. I thought it was a dream.’

‘You heard everything I said.’

Rumple nodded. ‘My light in the dark.’

‘You chose me.’

‘I’ll _always_ choose you. I’m sorry I made you doubt it.’

‘And I’m sorry for being a wife you felt you couldn’t confide in.’

‘Belle, I…’

‘No. I won’t have you take all the blame onto yourself. I contributed too. I hurt you too.’

‘And Will?’

Belle smiled. ‘He’s fine. We agreed; we were both being cowards. Bailing when things got a little rough instead of facing it. Fighting for it.’ She rubbed Rumple blue opal wedding ring. He never took it off. ‘The wedding isn’t the end of our story. It’s only the beginning. The story doesn’t end until the book closes. It’s up to us to make it a good one… If you’ll let me be more than just a chapter in your book?’

‘Belle…’ Rumple laced his fingers through hers. ‘A chapter _can_ be a book.’ He sighed. ‘I owe you the truth…’

‘I heard everything you said,' Belle informed him. 'Emma facetimed me.’

Rumple turned to Emma, not sure whether to be exasperated or grateful.

‘My job’s to bring back the happy endings,’ said Emma. ‘All of them. Beauty and the Beast without a happy ending? The internet would break.’

Rumple and Belle laughed. They look at each other. Then they looked down at their cup and both received a surprise. Belle’s wedding ring was sitting inside. Rumple took it out, stared at it, then held it out to Belle.

‘Belle… I’m powerless. I can’t protect you or myself. I can’t even walk unaided. I’ve made many enemies over the centuries. Now that I’m mortal there’s nothing to stop them hurting us. You’ll always have a target on your back. I’ve made many, many mistakes. Done wrongs that must be put right. I wear the heaviest cloak of regret than any man alive. But I don’t regret loving you. Belle, I know I’ve hurt you in unforgivable ways. I want to do better by you. I want to love you in a way I never could before. With honesty and courage. Let me be the man you deserve. The man I swore on my son’s grave that I would be. If you’ll have me as I am now, if you’ll still have me… Belle, please will you be my wife? Everything I am I give to you. My wife, my light, my true love, my hero.’

Belle nodded, as happy as the first time he proposed. They had a long road ahead, but they would get through it together. ‘Yes.’

Belle extended her hand and Rumple slipped her ring back on, kissing it like a long lost friend. They leaned in and rested against the others forehead.

‘I’ve missed you so much,’ said Belle softly. Her blue eyes met the brown. ‘Thank you for coming back to be.’

‘I always do,’ Rumple assured her.

‘How’re you feeling?’

Rumple sighed and leaned back against the counter. ‘Tired.’ Having a over thousand year old dark entity removed from you after three hundred years did take it out of you.

‘Your heart?’

Rumple moved automatically to remove it, remembering that he couldn’t only when his hand didn’t sink into his chest. He looked to the Saviour for help. ‘Emma?’

Emma joined them on the floor and lightly touched his chest. Like an x-ray they could see Rumple’s heart beating. It was no longer black as night. But it wasn’t ruby red either. It was now pure white.

‘Well that’s new,’ said Emma. 'Is that good or bad?'

‘White?’ said Belle tracing it with her fingertips as Emma’s wore off. ‘What does it mean, Rumple?’

‘Oh no,’ said Rumple, a look of dawning horror on his face.

‘What? What is it?’

Rumple looked all around him. ‘The curse – where is it?’

‘But we shared True Love’s Kiss. It’s gone,’ Belle reasoned.

‘The curse was borne of the Enchanted Forest. Only there can it be broken. Emma, where did it go?’

There was a rattling noise behind them and they looked round to see the hat case shaking violently, as if something inside was fighting to get out. The stars on the lid were swallowed by blackness. Then the case broke as darkness burst out and flew around the shop like a swarm of angry bees. It swirled around the ceiling before it dived at Rumple and Belle, who huddled closer, holding each other protectively. The Darkness stopped a foot away from them and withdrew, hissing angrily but didn’t attack them.

Then the mass of black tendrils screeched as Emma hit it with her light magic, forcing it away from them. The Darkness smashed out of the shop window and into the night.

‘Why didn’t it attack us?’ Belle asked.

They glanced down at their wedding rings that were shining gold.

‘I don’t think it can,’ said Rumple. ‘Not while we’re together. I think we’re immune.’

‘Inoculation by True Loves Kiss.’

‘It’s as good as explanation as any.’

‘The hat’s gone,’ said Emma, staring at the scorch mark on the floor. ‘I just fed the Darkness all the power that hat possessed.’ She looked towards the broken window where the now uber-darkness had disappeared. ‘I have to go after it. If it’s loose it’ll be looking for a new host. You two stay here. Belle, take Rumplestiltskin to the back room so he can rest.’

But as she headed for the door Rumple called her back. ‘Emma!’

Leaning on Belle for support, Rumple picked up the nameless dagger and handed it to Emma. ‘Be careful,’ he said sincerely to the woman who had saved his life and his marriage.

Emma smiled confidently. ‘I’ll be back.’

Rumple tried to quell the horrible sense of déjà vu at her words. Those were his exact words he told his son before facing the Dark One. And Baelfire's father never came home.

**Author's Note:**

> Evermore (Reprise) - Beauty and the Beast - Lyrics by Reyna Maddé: 
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/10498809


End file.
